In a split second, Nie Tian appeared in a very spacious hall in the Heaven Palace Sect.
A number of teleportation portals were flickering with bright light as Worldly realm and Profound realm cultivators came through them every once in a while.
Among them, Nie Tian was the one who seemed the most insignificant.
A Heaven Palace Sect elder with white eyebrows and a beard was in charge of the teleportation portals. Originally, he had bowed his head in silence, but at this moment, he suddenly raised his chin, his expression flickering.
He wasn't looking at Nie Tian. Instead, his glittering eyes were fixed on Zhao Shanling, who was standing shoulder to shoulder with Nie Tian.
The man's name was Wu Ya. He was a late Profound realm cultivator who also practiced spatial power.
"Brother Zhao!" Wu Ya sprang to his feet, and with an excited look in his eyes, strode towards Zhao Shanling.
Zhao Shanling laughed coldly as he flicked his long sleeve, and a wave of profound power instantly pushed Wu Ya back a few steps.
At the same time, cultivators from the other realms continued to arrive via the other teleportation portals. All of them were here to join the battle.
Many of them recognized Zhao Shanling.
Shocked to see him, they lowered their voices and discussed his arrival while slowly backing away from him.
"It's him!"
"That maniac is here! Is he here to help us win the battle?"
"No way! He massacred all those innocents in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation. He's even more merciless than the outsiders. There's no way that he's here to save us from this calamity!"
"I'm even more worried now that he's here. I wouldn't be surprised if he worked with the outsiders to kill us."
Wu Ya, who was pushed out of the way by Zhao Shanling, smiled nervously as he clasped his hands and said, "Brother Zhao! Our sectmaster has said that you... you're not welcome in the Realm of Mystic Heaven."
With a broad laugh, Zhao Shanling said, "Is my brother afraid that I'll get killed in the Realm of Mystic Heaven, or that I'm here to massacre people like the outsiders?"
Wu Ya shook his head. "I don't dare to presume the sectmaster's thoughts."
As a cultivator who practiced spatial power, he understood Zhao Shanling's formidable power better than anyone.
After taking a deep look at Zhao Shanling, his eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Congratulations, Brother Zhao! You've made another advancement in your cultivation!"
At that moment, a woman's voice suddenly echoed out from the side."Nie Tian?!"
Nie Tian jerked his head towards the source of the voice. Surprised, he said, "Sister Lu?"
It was Lu Ling who had just teleported here from the Yin Sect and called out to him. Standing behind her were a few Worldly realm and Profound realm Yin Sect members.
Lu Ling's expression suddenly turned cold as she asked, "What are you doing here? Go now! You won't be able to help us win this war! Instead, you being here will only create trouble!"
Wu Ya gasped with astonishment. "Nie Tian?!"
The numerous Worldly realm and Profound realm experts that had just stepped out of the teleportation portals all laid their eyes on Nie Tian, their expressions flickering. "He's Nie Tian?!"
Recently, Nie Tian's name had spread wide and far in the Domain of the Falling Stars. Everyone learned that Hua Mu had parted on bad terms with Zhao Luofeng and Xia Yi because of Nie Tian and his Flame Dragon Armor.
They were all very surprised that he would appear in the Heaven Palace Sect at such a sensitive time.
A Worldly realm Poison Sect disciple laughed and called out, "Nie Tian! You've thought it through, haven't you? It's not too late. As long as you hand over the Flame Dragon Armor now, the Flame God will still join the battle. As long as the Flame God can stop Basto, we'll have a good chance of winning this battle!"
A man from the Spirit God Sect chimed in, "You've come around just in time. Your Flame Dragon Armor will finally be put to good use!"
Many others also assumed that Nie Tian was here to give the Flame Dragon Armor to Xia Yi, and thus felt relieved.
"Get back in that teleportation portal now!" Before Nie Tian could say something, Lu Ling started dragging Nie Tian towards the teleportation portal.
She genuinely feared for Nie Tian's safety and knew what unwanted things would happen if Nie Tian remained in the Realm of Mystic Heaven.
Chin slightly up, Zhao Shanling turned to look at Nie Tian with an inquiring gaze.
Seeing that Lu Ling was forcing Nie Tian to leave, Wu Ya hurried over while exclaiming, "Wait! You can't leave now! If you want to go, please leave the Flame Dragon Armor first!"
"Screw off!" Zhao Shanling grew impatient as he sent Wu Ya back with another flick of his long sleeve.
Wu Ya was taken aback. "Brother Zhao, didn't you escort him here for him to hand in the Flame Dragon Armor?"
"Who told you that?" Zhao Shanling didn't show the slightest intention of explaining. Instead, he jerked his head towards Nie Tian and said, "Do you want to leave or stay?"
"Stay!" Nie Tian exclaimed.
"Okay!" Zhao Shanling then made a grabbing motion in the air and Nie Tian escaped Lu Ling's control and flew to his side.
SHEW!
In Nie Tian's senses, he felt as if he had been dragged into a mini arcane realm. Now, he couldn't sense anyone else's aura except Zhao Shanling's.
However, his vision and hearing were completely unaffected.
He could still see the people in the spacious hall and hear them discussing this unexpected event, but he couldn't sense their auras anymore.
"You're now in one of my personal void realms," Zhao Shanling said casually. "It's separated from the space that we live in by multiple layers of void. Due to my special arrangements, you can see and listen. But attacks of any form from our space won't be able to reach you."
"Will I still be able to maintain my connection with my puppet?" Nie Tian asked instantly.
"I don't know about that." With these words, Zhao Shanling suddenly remembered something and thus asked, frowning, "What happened to it? Why are there Bloodline Crystal Chains in that Bonebrute's shell now?"
"Perhaps it's because it has absorbed a large amount of outsider blood," Nie Tian lied.
Zhao Shanling laughed coldly. "Outsider blood? The Blood Sect's Blood Refining Incantation will only allow it to channel blood and absorb power from it. Since when can it restore Bloodline Crystal Chains to a dead heart?"
"I don't know either," Nie Tian said, spreading his hands.
"It seems that you still have a lot of secrets that I don't know about," Zhao Shanling said, his eyes narrowed, as if he wasn't worried in the slightest that their conversation would be overheard by others. "Forget it. Let's just get ahold of the situation first. You need to remember that you can't take one step out of my void realm. Otherwise, even I won't be able to keep you safe."
WHOOSH!
In the next moment, Wu Ya, Lu Ling, and everyone in the great hall vanished from Nie Tian's view.
After a moment of dizziness, he found himself and Zhao Shanling high in the air above the Heaven Palace Sect and the Five Elements Fortune Formation.
Rain was pouring down and bolts of lightning were slithering in the night sky.
In the heavy rain, bloody battles were taking place within a five hundred kilometer radius of the Heaven Palace Sect.
Nie Tian gazed off in every direction, and all he could see were the bright lights created by spiritual tools clashing with the outsiders' bloodline magics.
Close to the Heaven Palace Sect, gigantic boulders were being manipulated by powerful Stoneman, smashing Worldly realm cultivators into puddles of blood and flesh.
A couple of powerful experts from the Yang Sect joined the battle. They manipulated their glowing spiritual tools that looked like small suns to attack the Stonemen experts.
In a further area, the falling rain was turned into ice shards that pierced through Birdmen like countless tiny daggers.
Nie Tian then realized that powerful experts from the Ice Pavilion Sect were vesting the rain and water with frigid ice power, turning them into sharp weapons.
In another area, the pouring rain was poisoned by deadly toxins and became as green as devils' eyes. As it rained on the Qi warriors' multicolored spiritual power wards, wisps of green smoke rose from them.
Meanwhile, corpses and severed limbs could be seen everywhere. Some belonged to humans and some belonged to outsiders.
Nie Tian didn't know how long the battle had lasted, but bloody scenes and fierce battles stretched as far as his eyes could see.
Both the humans and the outsiders seemed to have lost their minds and were now driven solely by their bloodthirsty instincts. It seemed they wouldn't stop until they had slaughtered every last one of their enemies.
"Go there." As Zhao Shanling said these words, the void realm that looked like a bubble in the heavy rain floated towards a location farther from the Heaven Palace Sect.
As they moved, Nie Tian glanced down and saw humans and outsiders engaged in fierce battles. From the look of it, the humans weren't at an obvious disadvantage.
However, as Zhao Shanling's void realm floated farther and farther away from the Heaven Palace Sect, Nie Tian finally saw battles between seventh grade outsiders and Soul realm human experts.
These were the battles that would determine the result of this war.
Qi Bailu, Zong Zheng, Dong Wangling, Qian Buhui... They were all fighting seventh grade outsiders.
Two Demons that had activated their Ancestral Awakening looked like ancient, evil gods that had dominated heaven and earth. As they breathed, endless Demon Qi came pouring out of their mouths. Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue were contending against them with their Spirit Channeling grade treasures that looked like a blazing sun and a glowing moon.
As they fought the Demons, the 'sun' and the 'moon' expanded and shrank from time to time, changing nonstop.
However, the transformed Demons took up the space between heaven and earth. They unleashed pitch-black demonlight from within pores all over their bodies, contending against the 'sun' and the 'moon'.
"Look over there." Zhao Shanling pointed in a direction and snorted a smile. "He seems to be having a good time."
Nie Tian looked up and saw a man sitting in the lotus position high up in the sky, like a blazing mountain in the heavy rain.
Bald and muscular, he was glancing down at the battles with narrowed eyes, not showing the slightest intention to join the battles himself.
"Is he Xia Yi?" Nie Tian asked in a low but firm voice.
A shred of grimness appeared in Zhao Shanling's eyes for the first time. "Yes, he is. After the Heaven Palace Sect's patriarch, he's the second Qi warrior to advance to the late Soul realm throughout the Domain of the Falling Stars."
Nie Tian followed Xia Yi's gaze and saw Hua Mu and the other two potentates of the Spirit Condor fighting a Phantasm expert in the distance.
The blade that Phantasm expert was holding was none other than the Nethersoul Saber.
"Basto!" With a single glance at him, Nie Tian figured out the Phantasm expert's identity.
The Nethersoul Saber in his hand seemed to have summoned countless weeping and screaming evil spirits from the depths of the Yellow Springs.
Hua Mu and the other two potentates of the Spirit Condor were now in the middle of a sea of evil spirits. They had each summoned a large, ancient bronze bell, a translucent and sparkling jade ruler, and a miniature seven-story pagoda.
These three Spirit Channeling grade treasures blossomed with glorious light that lit up the entire sky.
Furthermore, they seemed to be forged by the same person, since they were all branded with the Spirit Condor's sigil.
The three Spirit Channeling grade treasures flashed about within the sea of evil spirits, unleashing blinding light to defend against the millions of evil spirits.
Zhao Shanling looked impressed as he said, "The Spirit Condor's reserve power is profound indeed. The three of them are actually able to contend against Basto with their Spirit Channeling grade treasures." Then, he shook his head and added, "But it seems that they won't be able to hold on for much longer. Once their Spirit Channeling grade treasures are worn down by the evil spirits and stop functioning, those three are bound to die."
At that moment, Xia Yi noticed Zhao Shanling's void realm. With a grin, he asked, "You're here, Brother Zhao! The kid next to you is Nie Tian, right? I've seen his portrait more than once."
Zhao Shanling nodded smiling. "Yes, he is."
"Thank you for bringing him to me, Brother Zhao." Xia Yi then beckoned for Nie Tian to come to him with one hand. "Give me the Flame Dragon Armor kid, and I'll forgive our previous feuds. I can even promise you that as long as you give me the Flame Dragon Armor, I'll personally make sure that the Realm of Flame Heaven will be safe for the next thousand years!"